I bought a Thunder 1 on EBay recently as a Restauration project. The poor thing looked very sorry for its self!

It had been painted in what looks like black Hamerite almost all over including pickups, control knobs and bridge and saddles.I have been in touch with Damian (westbone) who has kindly agreed to post the photos of it in the state it was when I bought it.I thought that people may be interested in my experience of restoring it.Everything was very corroded and the saddle adjustment screws were unmovable so I have bought a new Gotoh saddle from Axcaster but in chrome and some chrome control knobs.I have stripped the paint off body and neck and sanded it back to bare wood.I believe that the original finish was natural so have gone for the same and have used two products. I have used Osmo Polyx Oil on the body and Burntwood Casy Tru Oil on the neck and headstock. I have used Polyx Oil on my Oak floor and found it very effective and easy to use - it only needs two coats. I am very impressed with the Tru Oil having not used it before.I have a problem with the electrics in that the bridge pickup did not work when in humbucker mode but when coil tapped was, at first, silent. it seems to be getting louder the more I use it!Westbone suggested that it could be a faulty coil tap switch or the humbucker I am a dummie when it comes to electronics but in an attempt at a process of elimination I swapped the red wires from the two humbuckers around on the coil tap switch and it made no difference so I thought that that might show that it was not the coil tap switch that was faulty. I have noticed that it I tap the pickup pole pieces with a screwdriver ithe bridge seems to be as loud as the neck pickup. I have also noticed that I the volume on the bridge pickup in humbucker mode reduces as I turn the bridge volume knob down so I suspecting that tone pot.Anyway, I would be interested to read comments.Happy winter solstice to all.Geoff

Last edited by GeoffG on Sun Dec 13, 2015 8:40 am; edited 1 time in total

Thanks to you all for the encouragement.Yes, I think the paint was Hammerite hammered finish hence the pitted look. Good paint but not for guitars!Compared to the time I spent scrapping paint off my windows from the top of a ladder to get a stained look that was all the rage in the 80's this was easy!

Re electrics, Westbone is supplying me with a replacement pickup for the bridge as he diagnosed the existing on as very poorly indeed.I am waiting for three chrome control knobs to arrive and when I have fitted those and the replacement pickup I will take a photo and ask Damian to post it.I already have a Thunder1A that I bought new in 1982, (see my profile picture).I have a holiday home in South West France and intend to leave this guitar there.A Thunder here and in France - paradise in two countries!

Good quality knobs indeed. When fitting them get the set screw to line up with the slit in the pot shaft otherwise they crimp up the splined shaft and wobble when you turn them. There's no spline in them.http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/271095232156?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649

It's a fair comment. The guitar is in pretty good condition overall. It does genuinely need to be dismantled, properly cleaned and reassembled but I could leave the finish as is.

However, it is (despite me looking for a long while) not one of the 'pretty' Thunders that you see. The wood grain is not particularly nice and the ash 'wings' either side of the central portion of the body are themselves laminates of miss-matched ash.

The upshot is that I am considering doing something radical like this:

Hi iep,The stripping process was pretty easy.I used Nitromors paint stripper and one of those three sided scrapers with one side flat, one side concave and the other side convex. It was not very sharp which is a good thing because it was less likely to put gouges in the wood than a sharp tool.You cand find Nitomore pretty easily and the scrapper too. I got mine from the local B & Q.You need to keep putting the Nitromors on and then scrapping them more Nitromors etc.Once most of the paint or original varnish is of it was then lots of hand sanding. I could have made life easier by using a power sander for some of it but I think you have more control by hand.Hope that helps.Geoff

As an aside and partly in answer to Westbone. Where do people even find this beat up examples? All the ones on eBay etc seem to be being sold on by collectors or re-sellers so none are cheap (or particularly beat up).

Here's mine. I shouldn't complain, the neck is good, fret wear minimal and all the electronics work fine. However, the appearance is just not as nice as others I have seen. In particular the mismatch between the two pieces of ash that form the left wing make it look a bit less musical instrument and a bit more 'breadboard'. Possibly I just need to ignore it but I was thinking that a dark stain on the wings might improve the appearance.

First up, stating the obvious, it looks in very nice nick indeed and while the grain is a little plain, it is still quite pretty!

That said, it is yours and you can do whatever you like to it, eh, and if you'd like to stain it, then have at it.... bearing in mind that staining is a lot harder to reverse if you don't like it than paint when it's done!

_________________FWIW, an after market esoteric nut is a solution to a problem that doesn't exist, and a great way to convert your money into someone else’s.

I'm not sure if I'll go for a full re-finish but if I do I'll probably go for a dark blue or red stain on the wings. Black is a bit too dark I reckon (though I know the Thunder 2s (or was it threes) came with a black finish on the wings).

I would have thought that a dark red stain (with some black grain filler across both wings) might have gone some way to balancing the overall appearance. I figured this as the area of mismatched grain is quite red itself. So, rather than trying to mute it, bring the rest of the body up to match it. Just a thought though.

Black would obviously work better but it looks a bit severe.

I'll hopefully have the guitar in the flesh next week so we'll see how I feel about it then.